Thanks to Netflix's 'Wednesday', 60-year-old song provides windfall for local Buckaroo

Dec. 15—You gotta admit, it's pretty cool to be the leader of the Buckaroos, the legendary backup band for the late, inimitable Buck Owens.

But even longtime Buckaroo keyboardist Jim Shaw can't be cool enough to own "The Goo Goo Muck," currently the hottest six-decade-old psychobilly punk song in the world.

Can he?

Shaw, 76, who is on the board of directors for the Buck Owens Foundation, and still goes to work every day in the building tucked behind Buck Owens' Crystal Palace near downtown Bakersfield, isn't exactly sure what hit him.

But he likes it.

"The song has close to 20 million views," Shaw said Thursday as he continues to watch the song and accompanying Netflix video go viral.

That doesn't necessarily mean the veteran musician, record producer and songwriter is going to get rich off this crazy, out-of-nowhere bonanza, but it sure is fun watching and waiting for what happens next.

It all started in the early 1960s when Bakersfield singer Ronnie Cook co-wrote the song with Ed James — at least according to the song credits — and recorded it with his band, the Gaylads.

Let's just say the tune didn't go gold.

Then in 1981, The Cramps released a new, punkier version, but with that similar Duane Eddy, Dick Dale retro surf guitar sound.

Shaw's old friend, Dave Bell — now long passed — owned the publishing rights to the song for decades.

"I produced for him," Shaw remembered. "Dave was a (record) label owner and a friend."

As an entrepreneur, Bell would hit it big, then lose again. "He was one of those guys who had to lay it on the line and gamble," Shaw said.

So Shaw loaned him money, a couple hundred here, a Benjamin there, during an extended downturn, until Bell owed him several thousand dollars.

"He told me, 'I don't know if I'm ever going to come up with the money,'" Shaw remembered.

Then one day in 2002, Bell told Shaw he wanted to give him "Goo Goo Muck" as a way to pay off his debt.

"I'm thinking, 'Yeah, right,'" Shaw recalled, not expecting much from the "cool little song."

And so the song kind of sat there as Shaw collected a couple hundred dollars in royalties each year, always putting it aside in case he could find beneficiaries of the late songwriters' estates, who are owed a portion.

"Then all of a sudden out of the blue, mid-year 2021, I get a letter from Netflix. They want to use The Cramps' version of 'Goo Goo Muck.' I'm thinking, 'Oh, cool.'"

According to Billboard, "when the 'Addams Family' revival came out Nov. 23, the series saw record-breaking viewership and the track took off, much like Kate Bush's 'Running Up That Hill' last spring in (the Netflix series) 'Stranger Things.'"

Now it feels like the video is everywhere on social media and YouTube.

It shows "Wednesday" star Jenna Ortega, dressed all in black at a white-themed high school formal dancing to "The Goo Goo Muck."

It's weird and strange and cool, all at once.

Maybe even as cool as a lone Buckaroo turned owner of one of the coolest songs in the country.

To check out the song and video, click here: https://youtu.be/99VB2UEeOyM

Reporter Steven Mayer can be reached at 661-395-7353. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter: @semayerTBC.